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Silverlight 4 Adds Arabic Support

November 18th, 2009 Leave a comment Go to comments

Silverlight 4 adds support for Arabic culture:

  • Install, configuration and runtime UI are in Arabic and RTL layout on Arabic culture
  • Support mixed BiDi/ComplexScript text
  • Support RTL layout with FlowDirection attribute and implemented by all controls

Below screenshots demonstrate some of the support:

  • Install UI:
    Silverlight developer runtime install UI
  • Configuration UI:
    Silverlight Configuration UI
  • Controls with FlowDirection set to RightToLeft:
    RTL Layout and Controls Demo

For those curious, you may notice that:

  • there is a new ar directory under %programfiles%\Microsoft Silverlight\4.0.41108.0, besides the 10 directories that have been there since SL3: de, en-us, es, fr, it, ja, ko, zh-Hans, zh-Hint. The ar directory contains Arabic resources for Silverlight runtime assemblies.
  • the MUI resource dlls contain Arabic resources:
    image

We will continue adding more support to more cultures in Silverlight. The Arabic support debuted in Silverlight 4 Beta is particularly important, since it is the first RTL language Silverlight supports. If you notice any bug or have suggestions, please let me know.

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  1. Anas
    June 24th, 2011 at 10:45 | #1
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    the flow direction property is missing from my visual studio 2010 , what shall i do ??!! please help me

  2. Santosh
    May 5th, 2011 at 03:33 | #2
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    HI,

    I have designed a Silverlight mapping application in English.. my requirement is such that I also need change the website font in Tamil (Indian Language) from oralce database which is stored in unicode(used baraha software)

    I have tried resource files etc but the since a lot of data needs to be read from the database I dont find that feasible

    Please do suggest alternatives

  3. Mohammad Elsheimy
    February 28th, 2011 at 13:08 | #3
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    My first time to know that Silverlight supports Arabic and RTL layout. This is so GREAT. Thanks for the post :)

  4. vinod
    October 7th, 2010 at 23:42 | #4
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    Hi,

    Thanks for your post. I’m facing a problem. I’m able to display Arabic in a Silverlight TextBlock but am not able to type Arabic in a Silverlight TextBox…can u suggest me a solution. Thank you.

  5. ulf landgren
    March 23rd, 2010 at 05:31 | #5
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    Hi,

    What support does Silverlight have for MUI?

    I like to write a Silverlight application that has support for different languages. (English, Swedish German, Finish, Spanish etc. and perhaps one day languages that are written very differently such as Arabic, Thai, Chinese.)

    The user shall be able to select a language at runtime and the program should display different texts in the GUI depending on the choice.

    What support does Silverlight have for this? Can Silverlight use MUI for translation of text labels and menus? Can it be used to translate choices in combo boxes (Text representations of enum-values or string values used to populate combo boxes, headers of grids etc?)

    If not how would you that a multilanguage application shall be implemented with Silverlight?

    Where can I read more about Silverlight and multilanguage?

    Best regards

    Ulf Landgren, Know IT Stockholm

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